Feminist Peace Network

Press Release received via e-mail:
Human Rights in China is deeply concerned by the Chinese authorities’ continuing misuse of the law to persecute Yuan Weijing (袁伟静), the wife of jailed blind activist and barefoot lawyer Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚).

Most recently, a Chinese court on May 14 upheld a decision by Beijing authorities to prohibit Yuan from leaving the country in August 2007 to receive an award on her husband’s behalf in the Philippines.

The court delivered this ruling in a lawsuit brought by Yuan to challenge the decision of the Beijing authorities. When the court heard Yuan’s lawsuit on May 5, 2008, it held the hearing behind closed doors, and Yuan was unable to attend because she was confined to her home by local authorities. The court closed the hearing, sources said, on grounds that the case involved “state secrets,” including Yuan’s status as a criminal suspect, and the invalidation of her passport. Yuan plans to appeal the court ruling as well as the invalidation of her passport and her classification as a criminal suspect.
Read more…

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Read here about the poignant anguish of mothers separated from their children along the Mexico/U.S. border, where “a modest opening here and there, just wide enough to slip a hand or a homemade taco through” allows families their only physical contact.

And kudos to Ellen Bravo for her fabulous op-ed about what mothers really need (hint:  it is not a new vacuum cleaner) and Rebekah Spicuglia for her excellent piece about what Mother’s Day feels like for a non-custodial Mom.

Women’s Group MADRE has put out an excellent collection of stories from Moms throughout the world on their MotherVerse website. Included on the site was the courageous tale of 2 sisters who have taken on Ronald McDonald House after one of them was stopped from nursing her very sick infant  in a public area at a Ronald McDonald House where they were staying while the child got treatment at a nearby hospital.   It doesn’t take more than a small bit of this story to want to start writing letters of protest, but please be sure to read the entire account first before writing so that you completely understand what is needed.  At the end of their narrative you will find the appropriate addresses and names of the board members of the RMH in question, and that iswhy I’m not reprinting the addresses here because you truly should read the entire story first.

“My sister and I are staying in the Ronald McDonald House in Houston because one of her 17 month old twins had to have brain surgery to remove a tumor last week. The RMH has been great and we have felt so blessed to find such a safe and homey place to take care of her other two children and my daughter while we are here for Tobin’s recovery.

However Thursday(April 12th) my sister, who is nursing the twins, was asked to stop nursing in the communal area of the Ronald McDonald House and to take it up to her room. She was shocked! After his surgery her son will basically only drink breastmilk and it is the only thing that eases the constant pain and anxiety he feels. She told them that she thought it was illegal, according the Texas state law, to ask a breastfeeding mother to stop nursing in any public or private place. She also tried to explain to them how inconvenient it would be for her to take all her children up 3 floors to their room every time her sick child needs to nurse.

Unfortunately after 30 minutes of arguing, and being told she might need to find other lodging, she was in tears and they weren’t backing down. So I headed down there to talk to the employee that harassed her because I am also nursing my three year old daughter. I even pulled up the state law on my laptop and after a lengthy discussion the employee she acted as if she was going to examine the law so she understood it and move on. I thought that was the end of it.

Today I find out they may be kicking us out of the RMH because we refused to comply with what they call their “interpretation of the law”. Their interpretation appears to be that if they provide somewhere else for us to nurse they don’t have to let us nurse in public places. Since when do laws get to be personally tailored to an organizations needs?”

It gets worse:

“After a very lengthy conversion with many twists and turns the RMH is allowing us to stay. We are from now on allowed to breastfeeding in the communal areas if we follow some rules they have set forth and not too many people complain about it. This applies to us only, they would not divulge how they would handle other nursing moms. They said they were bending their guideline for us.

They said if just one person complains about our nursing, and it was a complaint focused on an issue with breastfeeding itself rather than discreetness, they will tell them they support breastfeeding and discuss with them why they are concerned. If many people were to complain they will have to deal with that as it comes up, they could not say how as they have not encountered the situation.

The rules we are to follow are that we are to be discreet, this is at our discretion, meaning we choose what discreet means but they said they will obviously know if we are not being discreet if people are complaining that they are uncomfortable with us nursing. It seems that our right to breastfeed at the RMH is somewhat tentative.

We are also being asked to inform the people around us before we begin nursing if we think there is anybody that may be uncomfortable with it. We are to tell them nicely that we are going to breastfeed, in case they want to leave or look away.”

The sisters stress that they feel that RMH has to address their policy as a whole, not just make exceptions in this one case.  VERY importantly, they state that except for this, RMH was very helpful to them and they were very pleased with all other aspects of their stay.  Please follow the link for the rest of the story and their suggestions about writing.

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Say firmly: “We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,

“Our husbands shall not come to us reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

“Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy, and patience.

“We women of one country will be too tender of those of another country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.”

From the bosom of the devasted earth a voice goes up with our own. It says, “Disarm, Disarm!”

The sword of murder is not the balance of justice! Blood does not wipe out dishonor nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as the means whereby the great human family can live in peace,

And each bearing after her own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, but of God.

Read more…

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Hey guess what–Playboy and Penthouse aren’t pornographic, at least according to the military:

“U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga., has introduced legislation that would close a loophole in the current law that allows the sale of some sexually explicit material on military bases by lowering the threshold required to deem material “sexually explicit.”

A Department of Defense committee that reviews materials sold on bases ruled last year that magazines such as Playboy and Penthouse are not pornographic. But Broun’s Military Honor and Decency Act includes language that could make those magazines eligible for the ban.”

Not surprisingly, some of the guys in the military aren’t too pleased:”

“”We all read ‘em,” said Pfc. Paul Rubio, 31, of Bakersfield, Calif. “There are times we just read ‘em for the technological parts like the new gadgets that come out. They have good stories sometimes too.”

“Pfc. Greg Smith, 21, of Northboro, Mass., a regular Playboy reader, said soldiers should be allowed to buy nudie magazines at the exchange.

“Playboy is good entertainment while you are on the can. They have jokes and good stories,” he said.”

Seriously.

“Broun, a Marine veteran, told Newsweek recently that the magazines sold in military exchanges are partly responsible for a rise in sexual assaults in the military and other problems.

“Allowing the sale of pornography on military bases has harmed military men and women by: escalating the number of violent, sexual crimes; feeding a base addiction; eroding the family as the primary building block of society; and denigrating the moral standing of our troops both here and abroad,” Broun says on his Web site.”

And here’s some interesting numbers:

“Army and Air Force Exchange service public relations manager Judd Anstey said AAFES sold $231,000 worth of Penthouse, Playboy and Playgirl magazines in Europe last year.

“Sales of these three titles account for 2.7 percent of total European magazine sales ($8.5 million) at AAFES facilities,” he said.

The sales accounted for 0.5 percent of worldwide AAFES magazine sales of $46.4
million, he said.”

That’s your tax dollars at work, folks.

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Yes I know, the title to this post is grammatically challenged, merely a nod to W’s “Is our children learning” line. But seriously, whatever happened to teaching reading, writing and ‘rithmatic???

“The first high school dedicated to preparing students for the front lines in the Nation’s homeland security has gone from theory to planning in Wilmington.

Curriculum choices for students, who are to be called Cadets, range from SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) through prison guard, water rescue, paramedic, fireman, professional demolition and emergency response operator, according to a Board statement.

To meet personal curriculum goals, all physically capable cadets are to attend a daily after-school exercise program. In addition, two hours of after-school sports or homeland security training will be available for cadet volunteers.”

I can just see the extra-credit project on waterboarding now…
.

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Murder Attempt Against Puntland’s Last Woman TV Presenter
Reporters sans Frontières
PRESS RELEASE
7 May 2008

Reporters Without Borders said today it was disgusted by a murder attempt against Bisharo Mohammed Waeys, celebrated presenter on the privately-owned Eastern Television Network (ETN), on 4 May, the last woman working openly as a journalist in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland, north-eastern Somalia.Bisharo Mohammed Waeys, who presents a popular talk show onto which she invites singers from the region, was driving to her home in Bossasso, when she came under fire from several armed men and only escaped by accelerating away fast, it was reported by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), partner organisation in Somalia of Reporters Without Borders. The next day she received two text messages threatening to kill her if she did not stop her entertainment programme on ENT.

Read more…

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There is an AP story in my local paper this morning that says this about Mrs. Bush, and I quote:

“She  blistered military leaders…as being “very inept” for repressing citizens and decimating an economy.”

Unfortunately she was referring to Mynamar, not the U.S.

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Our list of influential women leaders is growing, here is the updated list, please note that if a submitted name is already on the Time list, then I didn’t include it here:

1. Barbara Brenner–Breast Cancer Action
2. Jennifer Drew–English activist working to highlight misogynist media portrayals of sexual assault.
3. Cathy Webster–1000 Grandmothers
4. Geena Davis
5. Leuren Moret and Helen Caldicott for raising awareness about the dangers of nuclear power and depleted uranium
6. Lilly Ledbetter
7. Amma
8. Alice Walker
9. Pema Chodron—Buddhist Monk, author
10. Kara Walker–artist
11. Jane Roberts–co-founder of 34 Million Friends of UNFPA
12. Yanar Mohammed–Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq
13. Medea Benjamin–Code Pink
14. Doris ‘Granny D’ Haddock
15. The women’s organizations in Okinanwa that are speaking out against the handling of sexual assaults committed by US military personnel
16. The Myannmar nuns and other women who marched with the monks but got almost no notice
17. Cynthia McKinney–presumptive nominee for president of the Green Party
18. Riane Eisler
19. Frances Moore Lappe
20. Malalai Joya
21. Wangari Maathai
22. Helen Thomas
23. Amy Goodman
24. Starhawk
25. Michele Batchelet
26. Dolores Huerta
27. Laurie David (environmentalist)
28. Marian Wright Edelman (Children’s Defense Fund)
29. Thelma Golden (museum curator)
30. Barbara Ehrenreich
31. Cecile Richards (PP of America)
32. Arundhati Roy (author, activist)
33. Michiko Kakutani (top NYT book reviewer)
34. Roman Catholic Womenpriests (POWERFUL international group of women)
35. Shirley Franklin (mayor of Atlanta)
36. Doris Lessing (only the 11th woman to win the Nobel prize for literature)
37. Toni Morrison
38. Rigoberta Menchu Tum
39. Grace Lee Boggs
40. Charlotte Bunch
41. Mary Robinson
42. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI)
43. Gov. Jennifer Granholm (MI)
44. Laila Ali (boxer)
45. Danica Patrick (racecar driver; recently the first female IndyCar winner in history)
46. My mother, your mother, and all the women who teach in classrooms everywhere–if they aren’t influential, somebody needs to explain to me the definition of that word!

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As is always the case in discussing aid in the aftermath of natural disasters, the first concern that we have is getting the aid to those who need it most, and that is almost always women and children.  We will post  information on efforts directed specifically for that purpose in Myanmar as we become aware of them.

“Women and children make up more than 60 per cent of Myanmar’s population, and are likely to be prominent among those affected. Experience shows that children are less able to physically defend themselves against such forces of nature and are highly vulnerable to the dangers that follow in their wake.

“Survivors of Cyclone Nargis are in urgent need of emergency supplies to help ensure they have clean water, food and shelter,” said Nigel Fisher, President and CEO, UNICEF Canada. “A rapid response will be critical to saving lives. We are asking Canadians to give generously and support UNICEF’s work now to help children and their communities in southern Myanmar.”

To support UNICEF’s work in helping to save the lives of women and children affected by this cyclone, please call 1-877-955-3111 or visit www.unicef.ca.”

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Anna Greer has a very thought-provoking piece in Wo! Magazine about the use of the passive voice in describing gender-based violence. She writes:

“One of the first things journalism students learn is to avoid the passive voice. So, you have to wonder why journalists are drawn to using passive voice when the subject of their article is male violence against women. What classically happens is that the actors in these stories are sidelined and we’re left with the women who get raped, sexually harassed, or beaten.”

“A recent story in the Sydney Morning Herald was a perfect example of passive voice subverting the object/subject relationship. ‘Don’t Want to Be Harassed? Stop Acting Like a Man’ read the headline. The article reported on a Canadian study which found that, in the workplace, men were more likely to sexually harass women who didn’t conform to traditional gender roles. In the process, it used passive voice to shift blame from the perpetrators of sexual harassment and placed it squarely on the shoulders of the victims.”

“The use of passive voice in articles such as this, subconsciously shapes the way people view violence against women. It is an insidious and unquestioned practice. In the passive voice version of the above story, men apparently don’t harass and intimidate women, women just run around getting themselves harassed. If active voice had been used, would the same conclusions be drawn? Would it have the same headline? No.”

“This is not merely an isolated incident or slip of the sub-editor’s metaphorical knife. It is a wide-spread practice - in news articles on the subject of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment and domestic violence - to have the perpetrators painted out of the picture, either partly or completely.

Positioning a male abuser as the actor in a news article on sexual assault isn’t accusing all men of being abusers, just as identifying women as victims doesn’t imply that all women have suffered from sexual harassment or intimidation in the workplace. But let’s be real here. Men are the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of violence against women — as they are the overwhelming majority of perpetrators of violence against men, for that matter. And using the passive voice in articles on gendered violence positions female victims as somehow the root of the problem. It shifts the responsibility and blame from the actor to the person on the receiving end of the abuse.”

“When women are identified as the victims of gender-motivated violence and intimidation, the perpetrators must be identified as the actors. The use of passive voice cloaks this reality. Let’s place the blame where it belongs — squarely on the shoulders of the abusers.”

Kudos to Greer for totally nailing it. We cannot hope to end gendered violence until we accurately report and name what is happening and like UK activist Jennifer Drew, Greer is absolutely right that we have to place the blame on the perpetrators, not the victims.

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